help

[edgeracer87]

Alright I tried booting from the floppy, but it came back as ntldr is missing press cntl alt delete. So I then change the boot order to cd, floppy, and hdd. It booted from the cd and I tried repairing windows, but it couldn't find alot of files. So it ended up aborting. The cd is made for a dell computer, so I must have the wrong one. What is my next step?

[edgeracer87]

kind of stuck

[patio]

Booting from what floppy ? ?
Booting from what CD ? ?

What are you attempting to do here ? ?
Sylvia is on Holiday...

[Mulreay]

The cd is made for a dell computer,

If this is an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) CD for Dell then it will only work on Dell. You will need to source a new one.

[EEVIAC]

What are you attempting to do here ? ?

re-read the thread

[EEVIAC]

I then change the boot order to cd, floppy, and hdd.

Take the CD out of the computer, then boot from the floppy disk


If all the other system files on your computer are intact, then booting off the floppy disk with ntldr should make your computer boot.  Then, once booted, copy and paste the ntldr file from the floppy disk back to the root of C:\
and you won't have to use the floppy disk anymore.

[BC_Programmer]

Take the CD out of the computer, then boot from the floppy disk

Again?

Alright I tried booting from the floppy, but it came back as ntldr is missing press cntl alt delete.

[EEVIAC]

Again?

I guess so.  The first time he tried it, it might not have been set to boot with the floppy drive before the HDD.  But then he figured out how to set the boot order and I was thinking that the CD was getting in the way.. That's all I was getting at

[EEVIAC]

1.  Boot Floppy.  Trick is to format the floppy on a Windows XP machine so its boot record is written to look for NTLDR as the bootloader file.  (And you do NOT want to make MS-DOS boot disk - which would look for the MS-DOS bootloader file; IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS.)

The Windows XP boot floppy needs to contain all three files:  NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, BOOT.INI.

The BOOT.INI file must point to the correct hard drive location of the operating system to boot (partition containing its "Windows" directory).

2.  Reference:
     a.  http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305595&sd=tech

dahlarbear tossed me a bone here..   This is the way it should be done..

It was so long ago that I did this on my own computer that I guess I just forgot how to do it correctly..

[BC_Programmer]

would the disk need to be formatted with /S?

[EEVIAC]

The way I did it, I just put a floppy disk in, then:

START>my computer>right-click on floppy disk>select format (quick)

Then open a command prompt:   ( CMD  )

attrib -s -h -r c:\ntldr    ENTER


attrib -s -h -r c:\ntdetect.com  ENTER

attrib -s -h -r c:\boot.ini     ENTER

Then just went to the root C with the mouse and copy and pasted them over to the formatted floppy disk..

I just forgot all about the other two files needed 

@ original poster, if you do it this way (you can thank dahlahbear) it should work this time..



@ BC  I'm not sure what the /s switch is for.. I haven't experimented with the FORMAT command much..    Except when formatting a drive for Windows 98 a few times..

[dahlarbear]

would the disk need to be formatted with /S?

1.  No.  That switch is not listed within Windows XP "format" syntax.  As you probably know, in earlier versions of Windows that switch was used to copy the MS-DOS system files to the formatted volume.  See http://www.computerhope.com/formathl.htm.

2.  Just format the floppy on a Windows XP system with a file system (no other options selected).  As part of the format, it will write an appropriate boot record that looks for and loads "NTLDR" upon boot.  Once again, if using the Windows GUI do NOT select any of the following "Format options":
     o  Quick Format
     o  Enable Compression
     o  Create an MS-DOS startup disk

3.  The biggest challenge here might be ensuring "boot.ini" points to the correct partition of the hard drive to boot into "Windows" directory.  This would be adjusted using a simple text editor, knowledge of how the hard drive was partitioned, or trial and error.

4.  Note:  Biggest advantage to using a "boot floppy" is you can replace its "NTDetect.com" file with a diagnostic version "NTDetect.chk" (which must be renamed to NTDetect.com).  It displays debug output during hardware detection which might help resolve system hangs during this phase of system startup.  Get file from Install CD ( \SUPPORT\TOOLS\SUPPORT.CAB ) or current version of Support Tools for Windows XP.

[BC_Programmer]

1.  No.  That switch is not listed within Windows XP "format" syntax.  As you probably know, in earlier versions of Windows that switch was used to copy the MS-DOS system files to the formatted volume.  See http://www.computerhope.com/formathl.htm.

OK, wasn't sure, I know it's not valid on Vista and I was too lazy to start up my VM at the time.

[EEVIAC]

dahlahbear..  Why not use "quick format" ?   It worked fine for me, when I did this.  At least I think it did.  Maybe I didn't use "quick"..

[dahlarbear]

Sigh...  I've already been "schooled" by Allan regarding the subject of "Quick Format".  (Thank you Allan.)  At that time, I had suggested it wouldn't write the boot record.  Allan assured me it would.  He must be right, otherwise when doing a Windows XP installation to a newly created partition, it wouldn't give you the "Quick Format" option if it wasn't going to write the boot record.

So...  Yes, "Quick Format" should be fine.  My "bias" is showing.  I never use it because I prefer some kind of assurance the partition/volume is good before using it.  I've also found a lot of my old floppy disks show bad blocks which are sometimes cleared by format.  (Living on the edge...)